Top seeds hit Spring Creek links

The top six seeds from this year’s Battle Trophy list and three of last year’s four semifinalists return for the second annual Central Virginia Match Play Championships this weekend at Spring Creek Golf Club.

Bowen Sargent, who defeated Farmington’s Paul Kane in last year’s match play title bout, cannot defend his 2007 championship due to a schedule conflict. Sargent, who lost last weekend’s Jefferson Cup Invitational to Nick Little in a two-hole playoff, is the men’s golf coach at the University of Virginia.

The top 16 players in the Battle Trophy standings (plus alternates) will square off in the area’s match play tournament on Saturday morning at 7:30 at Spring Creek. Those eight players who survive the morning round will battle it out in the quarterfinals that afternoon. Semifinals and finals will be held Sunday also at Spring Creek.

While Sargent will be unavailable for the event, the other semifinalists from last year’s competition are slated to play: Kane, Spring Creek’s Jerry Burton, and Old Trail’s Brent Daughtrey. Sargent defeated Burton 5-and-4 last year, while Kane defeated Daughtrey, 2-up. Sargent downed Kane 2-and-1 for the title.

Kane and Daughtrey are rematched in Saturday’s first round via seeding. Albemarle’s Wes Eklund and William Monroe’s Mikey Moyers are close friends who have played together since the two learned the game, both representing Greene Hills.

Here is the seedings and matchups for Saturday morning’s first round (note: alternates filled the last four seeds, 13-16):

Upper Bracket:

(1) Nick Little vs. (16) Pokey Buchanan or Jim Higginbotham

(8) Ty Grove vs. (9) David Passerell

(4) Phillip Mahone vs. (13) Neil Davis

(5) Jeff Toms vs. (12) Kevin Gibson

Lower Bracket:

(2) Jerry Burton vs. (15) Jud Foster

(7) Brent Daughtrey vs. (10) Paul Kane

(3) Scott Garrison vs. (14) Bob Rotella

(6) Wes Eklund vs. (11) Mikey Moyers